Solar dryer for Ripening and Drying of Dates

Summary

Agriculture forms the base of the Pakistan economy, which produces large quantities of grains, fruits and vegetables. But due to the inadequate post harvest care, it is estimated that about 20-30 percent of the produce is wasted. If solar dryers are used to remove excess moisture from the product before storage, their quality will not deteriorate during storage and insect infestation will be reduced. Similarly, large quantities of excess dates, now being wasted, could be solar dried in a controlled manner for use during off-season. The present drying in the open-air produces low quality Dates. Although some moisture is removed but insects and dust are added. Solar dryer technology is well developed and can be used to do the drying in a controlled manner. This may well eliminate the need to import large quantities of dates. A fruit drying using solar energy is running successfully in the northern areas. In this regards PCRET have developed solar dryer for the drying of apricots for Agha Khan Rural Support Program, and by this technology people will save considerable amount of apricots and this can helpful in eradicating poverty form of these far-flung areas.

This technology is also the mandate of the PCRET research; it will save dates, presently wasted during storage and increase the export of good quality dates. The project aims to install 10 solar drying plants and will dry total 500 Kg of produce daily. Keeping in view the environmental concern all over the world, various energy conservation measures are now being strictly applied to healthy food supply to the citizens is the priority of the Government.

Author Address

Mr. Saeed Hussain
PCRET
sector 25
H-9
Islamabad
44000
Pakistan

Affiliation

Institute

Status

[Ongoing Implementation]